Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dental Microwear Analysis Of Averbuch: A Dietary Reconstruction Of A Mississippian Culture, Melissa G. Muendel

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reconstructs subsistence patterns of the inhabitants of Averbuch, a prehistoric late Mississippian culture, using SEM (scanning electron microscopy) to quantitatively assess the dental microwear of the permanent adult second mandibular molar of a selected skeletal sample from the Averbuch archaeological site. A comparison among the patterns of the Averbuch and those reported from other prehistoric sites in the United States is presented. The study uses the mesiolingual cusp (metaconid) tip facet (Kay and Hiiemae, 1974) of the mandibular permanent second molar to measure dental microwear features. Every cusp in the human mouth has an occlusal relationship to the …

Maximum Likelihood And Bayesian Estimation Of Skeletal Age-At-Death From The Human Pubic Symphysis, B. S. L. Hurst

Doctoral Dissertations

A number of methodological problems have recently plagued studies of adult skeletal age-at-death estimation. Over the last two decades, researchers have extended considerable effort to place age estimation studies on a firmer statistical ground. However, many of the current methods can still be criticized because they make unjustifiable assumptions or use inappropriate statistical models. Much of the controversy surrounding age-at-death estimation has focused specifically on the question of applying age standards from a reference collection of known-age individuals to a target group of unknown age.

The current study, involving a large sample (n=739) of adult male pubic symphysis data, demonstrates …

Biological Relationships Among Siberians: Craniometric, Serological, And Dermatoglyphic Approaches, Miyo Yokota

Doctoral Dissertations

Siberian people, residing in the wide range bounded by the Urals to the West, Beringia to the East, Mongolia to the South, and Arctic to the North, form an important link between Asia, Europe and people in the New World. However, biological contribution of Siberians to Asians, Europeans and people in the New World were not sufficiently studied until recently.

Previous extensive Siberian studies were mainly conducted by Russians and Japanese researchers, most of whom agreed that Siberians were clearly classified by typology. However, their typology is problematic when explaining tribes i.e., Evenks and Evens, who are exchanging genes and …